The Indiana University Men’s Golf team continues its solid play this season, and IUSportCom’s on-team correspondent, Chase Wright, gives us a recap of this past weekend’s Windon Memorial and a preview of next week’s Islesworth Collegiate.
On a cold, windy Chicago morning this past Sunday, 90 college golfers began warming up for the first two rounds of the Windon Memorial tournament, hosted by Northwestern University. Among these players, six of them were members of the Indiana University men’s golf team.
Five of the six were playing on the team this week, while the sixth player was playing as an individual. In college golf, sometimes teams are fortunate enough to travel with an extra player to give him some tournament experience. His score does not count toward the team score, which can be good sometimes, but as we will see, not so much at other times.
As a team captain going into this week, I personally was feeling very confident and comfortable with my game. I knew if we put together three solid rounds we would be right there in contention at the end of the tournament.
The field was a good one, filled with 16 teams that included UCLA, Arkansas, Northwestern, and Pepperdine. We finished tied for second with UCLA and only four shots behind Arkansas, who claimed their third team title in four starts this fall. It was another good week for us as we prepare to head to our fifth and final event of the fall, the Isleworth Collegiate.
“I really felt as if this week, much like last week at Firestone when we won, we began to play as a unit instead of playing as individuals. Brant Peaper’s 65 in the second round was huge for him and our team,†Coach Mike Mayer said after our performance Monday.
We placed three players in the top 10, which is great in a college tournament of this magnitude. I finished tied for fourth, Brant Peaper finished tied for sixth, and David Mills finished tied for eighth. As I mentioned earlier about the individual playing, Corey Ziedonis, had we counted his scores for the tournament we would have won by two shots over Arkansas. This is easy to look back upon afterwards, but also shows the interchangeability we have with our lineup.
As we look forward to this week’s event in Orlando, it is one of the best college tournaments of the year. The field is stacked with 10 of the top 20 teams in the country, and is on one of the best golf courses in the country. We will need to draw upon our past tournament success at this event, and continue to play with patience, confidence, and as a team.
On paper it may not look like we have much of a chance to win this tournament, but our team knows that it’s just golf, and we are just as good as anyone in the country. I look forward to the challenge in Orlando, and another opportunity to play with the best players in the world.
